Chasing The Sun
by Solaris115
Summary: After losing his sister to a dark guild, Ryu Hoshigawa, the "Eternal Fire Dragon Slayer", has joined Fairy Tail to look for information about the guild responsible for his sister s disappearance. Once he fulfills his desire, he we will have to find out what his foster father, the legendary dragon Amaterasu, meant by saying his mission was to "Shine on". OCxErza Remember to review!
1. Prologue: Shine On, Ryu Hoshigawa!

**Author´s note: **After I started watching the anime (haven't finished it yet, not even close) and reading some Fairy Tail fanfics, I decided to write my own. I hope you enjoy it and get past this prologue and chapter 1. If you like it, be sure to review, follow and all that sort of stuff, because it keeps me writing.

For my main OC I will be using the same name that I´m using in my other fic, just because I´m incredibly creative (not).

**Disclaimer:** I **DO NOT** own Fairy Tail or any of its characters; however, I **DO** own my OCs and that sort of stuff.

* * *

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Prologue: Shine On, Ryu Hoshigawa!**_

_May 17, X773._

Night had fallen down on Fiore. The full moon on the sky was dimly illumining the land. Under it, a young boy and his sister were waiting for their parents in the depths of a forest, parents that would never come back.

The boy already knew that, and was fighting off his tears, just because he wanted to keep his sister asleep.

This little boy, who barely knew anything about the world, or life itself, would have to protect his sister so that she could live the life he wanted her to live. He would have to become a man faster than usual; he would have to become stronger.

The silence of the forest was his only companion at the moment, as his sister was sheltering herself in an ocean of dreams. But then, even though it was only for him, the calmness of the forest broke. The young boy could feel something was calling him; he carefully picked his sister up, so she could keep sleeping, and started walking towards whatever was calling him.

The way was a short one; if only her sister had been awake, getting up to the top of the hill at the border of the forest would have been easier. When the young boy arrived at the top, he could see he was standing before a massive cavern entrance at the base of a huge mountain. The same feeling he had felt at the forest was travelling his mind and body again, but this time, it was stronger.

Without waking his sister up, the young boy entered the cave. The further he advanced, the harder it was to see anything. The only thing that guided him inside the darkness was the feeling he had been following so far.

After a couple of minutes of wandering in the darkness, light could be seen again. The little girl woke up. Feeling scared because she didn't knew where she was, she said to his brother:

"B-big brother, w-where are we?"

"Don't worry, where are safe. Don't feel afraid."

The little girl was trying to follow her brother´s advice, but the fear was causing some tears to leak out of her hazel eyes, as she got off her brother to walk alongside him, taking his left hand.

With a couple of steps, both could see that the light was coming from what seemed to be blue flames. It was a strange sight; both of them were pretty sure fire wasn´t supposed to be blue.

"It seems I wasn't wrong, I could feel someone was lurking in the forest without direction."

A male voice broke the silence of the cavern. The boy and his sister were confused; they didn't expect another human to be there. But then, that confusion turned into fear, as they could see that the voice hadn't come from a person, but instead, it came from a dragon resting behind the blue flames.

"Don't be afraid, I don't plan to hurt you. Tell me, what where you doing in that forest?"

The little girl was about to cry, she was utterly scared. She hid from the legendary creature behind her brother.

The boy was also scared, but he didn't want to look weak in front of his sister. He took a deep breath, and answered:

"W-we were waiting for our p-parents."

He was shivering, but at least, had been able to say something.

"Are you sure about that?"

The dragon already knew what was going on. They had been abandoned, but the children in front of him had to realize that.

"I-I…I don't know."

The young boy started to cry, and so did his sister. Even though she was younger than him, she had also understood that they had been abandoned, though she didn't want to accept it, not until now.

The dragon felt slightly bad for the pair of humans in front of him. A pair of abandoned humans, they would not be able to survive much time out in the wild. That idea got the best of him, so he decided to take in the little boy and his sister, he decided to raise them, he could feel that they had a strong amount of magic inside; they had a bright future ahead of them.

"Stop crying. It won´t fix anything. Your parents have abandoned both of you and you know that. You won't last long out there. Stay here with me, and I´ll protect you and teach you how to live. I´ll teach you powerful magic that will help you to survive."

The dragon said this without changing his tone. He would understand perfectly if they didn't accept his offer, they were clearly scared of him.

The young boy tried to clear his tears off. He knew that outside they would probably die in the next few weeks; they didn't know how to get back to their home town. He decided to accept, he wanted to protect his sister, but he didn't want her to risk her life, so he said:

"We-we´ll stay here. B-but you will only train me. My sister must live peacefully."

"B-brother, I´m scared…"

The dragon felt relieved. Even though dragons were more powerful than humans, he cared about them, and didn't want to live knowing he had abandoned a pair of kids in wild.

"It has been decided. You´ll be my pupil, but I'll take care of both. What are your names?"

"M-my name is R-Ryu! R-Ryu H-Hoshigawa!"

He had stopped crying, he wanted to forget about his past, he wanted to start anew with his sister. He would have to accept the frightening creature as his father.

Ryu´s sister was still hiding behind his back, giving little peaks at her foster father. She was hanging from her brother´s shirt, trying to feel secure.

"Don't be so shy little one, I´m not scary, at least not now."

The dragon wanted to gain the girl´s thrust, or the next days would be harder than he could imagine.

"My-My name is…is…A-Alice….Hoshi-gawa"

"Good, now tell me, how old are you?"

"I´m…4 years old."

Alice had calmed down, but she was still shivering.

"I´m 7 years old."

The young hazel eyed children would be living with the white and red dragon in front of them. This dragon knew that, even though he had never raised someone before, this would prove to be a challenge, but it would be nice to know that now he wasn't alone.

"_Quite young I see…Let´s see how this idea turns out to be…"_

"My name is Amaterasu, the Eternal Fire Dragon"

From that moment on, 2 human kids would learn how to live from a dragon. One of them would become a dragon slayer; the other one would see how her brother would endure a task such as training with a dragon. But now, they had recovered what they had lost moments ago, a family.

* * *

July 7, X777

"It is time."

The young Ryu understood that he, alongside his sister, would be parting ways with the dragon they had come to call father.

Amaterasu looked down on Ryu, he had grown a lot in the last 4 years, and he had become stronger, even stronger than expected. The now 11 year old boy would have to look for his own path with his sister.

Alice was next to Ryu when Amaterasu announced the pair of kids that he would be now leaving them. Alice had become taller as well; her brown hair now reached her shoulders. Her hazel eyes still had the same innocence they had when he first saw them. Ryu was taller too, but now, there was something he did not share with his sister.

It was his eyes.

Amaterasu was a special dragon. He did not only teach "Eternal Fire Dragon Slayer" magic to Ryu, but he had also managed to teach him a secondary type of magic that he also possessed: "Sky Dragon Slayer" magic. Because of this two types of powerful magic now residing inside of him, Ryu´s eyes were different from any other person. His right eye was red, similar to Amaterasu´s head scales, and his left eye was blue, matching the color of the flames he now controlled.

"Before I leave, I will leave you with a task. Promise you will complete it. Think of it as some way of thanking me for these years."

Amaterasu said this with some sadness in his words. He would never see Ryu and Alice again, even if he would prefer staying with them.

"What is it?"

Amaterasu told Ryu what he had to do, and then, he left. He disappeared in the darkness of the cave, and when he got outside, he opened his wings and flew to the horizon, to be never seen again.

"Alice, it´s time for us to leave too. Now that we know how to get to Jasmine town, we can live in our old home, if it´s still there!"

"Yes, brother."

Both of them left the cave, and set off to Jasmin town. After a couple of hours, they arrived to their destination.

Ryu was carrying what seemed to be a chest; Amaterasu had told him that he would need what was inside, when the time had come.

The Hoshigawa pair arrived at a 2-Story house near the center of the village. Before abandoning them, their parents had given them a key, so they could return to their home when they had become older.

After entering the house, they hoped to meet their real parents, but they were not there. Both of them had talked about the possibility of their parents not being in this world anymore, so it didn't affect them as much as they thought it would. Now they could start their new life without complications.

* * *

_February 7, X783_

"Happy birthday Alice!"

Ryu, 17, said this while hugging his sister.

"Thank you brother!" Alice said, now blushed because of her brother.

Alice was turning 14 that day. Ryu wanted to make sure she enjoyed that day as much as she could, as she had given her best to make him happy in his last year´s birthday, which was on August 2.

He had given her a pendant in form of a sun, which reminded them of their foster father, Amaterasu.

The day passed without much complication, Alice enjoyed her day by visiting the center of town, where a festival taking place. At night, both of them went to sleep after eating some of her birthday cake.

Meanwhile, on top of a hill nearby, there were around 30 people gathered, waiting for their leader´s orders.

"This is the place. Take everything you can, and capture as many people as possible. We need their magic energy! Now go!"

The dark shadow was standing before a banner, which had a skull and a moon drawn on it. They were mages, members of the dark guild known as Nightmare.

The full moon was the only thing lighting the town. Ryu woke up after hearing a scream coming from Alice´s room.

"Ryu! Help me!"

"Alice!"

Ryu quickly got out of bed and ran for the door of his room, and after opening it, he turned left and saw a couple of mages exiting from Alice´s room, with his sister on top of one of the mage´s back.

"YOU! What do you think you are doing with my sister?!"

Ryu shouted this and gained their attention. Both of the mages were tall and lanky, and had a malicious grin on their faces.

"We´ll be borrowing her, you little brat! She has an amazing amount of magic inside of her, you know! Just what we need *Laughs*" Said one of the mages.

"Let her go, now."

When Ryu said this, a blue magic seal appeared in front of him and then, both of his arms were engulfed in his signature blue fire. The blue light from his flames was the only thing lighting the hallway of the second floor, where Ryu, the mages and Alice were.

"Oh, so you want to fight me, little brat? Run with the girl, she is part of the prize we were looking for, I´ll have some fun with him before catching up with you."

The other mage blew a hole in the wall behind him, and ran off.

"_Damn it! I can´t waste more time with this guy." _Ryu thought.

While the second mage was running away from Ryu´s house, he could see how the other buildings in town were set on fire. They had to destroy the whole place and leave no one there. He was running happily when he heard an explosion right behind him. He turned and saw his partner flying through the air, and then, from the smoke coming from the house, he saw Ryu, who started chasing him.

Ryu didn´t want to imagine what would happen to her sister should he fail. He ran as fast as he could, but suddenly, he felt a pain in the back of his neck, and fell unconscious.

Moments later, Ryu woke up in what seemed to be a warehouse. He could recognize it as the storage of some of the stores in the other side of town. He was tied up, and in front of him, he could see a group of mages setting the place on fire.

His vision was blurry, but he was able to see what seemed to be woman in armor taking his sister away from him. She was screaming his name. He tried as much as he could to rise his gaze to see who was taking her, but he could barely see.

He noticed, before falling unconscious again, that his sister´s captor seemed to be woman with crimson hair. She was wearing what seemed to be iron armor. That was everything he could see before losing consciousness.

When he woke up, everything he could see around him was rubble and ashes. Everyone in town had been either captured or killed.

Ryu´s body had been able to survive the fire thanks to his training. The string used to tie him to one of the pillars of the warehouse was no longer there, nor was the pillar or the warehouse. Every building in town had disappeared.

Ryu started walking in the same direction the mages had disappeared. The moon was still high in the sky, illumining the remains of the town. It had been raided. Ryu picked up what seemed to be a piece of cloth that had a symbol drawn on it. It was the same one he had seen in the body of the mage he had fought before.

He pressed it in his fist, anger flowing through his veins.

"_I failed. I wasn´t able to protect her." _Ryu thought.

Tears were falling from his eyes. It took him some minutes to stand in front of where his house once stood. He noticed something was shining on the floor. It was the pendant he had bought for his sister. His thoughts were painful, as he took the pendant and attached it to a chain in his neck.

"_I failed you Alice."_

He felt something calling him from inside his house remains. It was similar to the felling he had when he first met Amaterasu. He removed some rubble to find the chest he had received from his father.

"_I can´t believe this is still here"_

Ryu thought this whilst opening the chest. Inside, he found what seemed to be a letter, alongside a dark blue robe, a katana and a pair of silver gauntlets.

When he touched the letter, a small magic seal appeared in front of him. Suddenly, Amaterasu´s voice was played.

"Ryu, I don't know what I going on, but if you are listening to this, it means something bad has happened. Inside this chest you will find some equipment I would have preferred you never had to use. But it seems you need it."

Ryu was taking everything out of the chest as he kept listening.

"Inside, you should find a robe and a pair of gauntlets that will provide you with extra protection, as I fear you will have to fight powerful enemies. This katana, it was given to me by a relative. It´s called Tsukuyomi, and I expect you to use it with the basics of requip magic I taught you. It will only change into a pair of daggers called Daybreak & Nightfall. Use them well."

Ryu took the sword and attached it to the robes. Now, on top of his white t-shirt he had the dark blue robe, double layered, being longer on the back. The robe had a hood and, in the collar, had a hidden section of the robe that Ryu could use to cover his mouth and nose. The back of the robe was long enough to cover the back of the upper part of his legs. He was using brown pants and brown boots.

"I know you will be able to fix whatever has happened, because you´re my son. Remember to fulfill the task I gave you. Goodbye."

He now understood. He had been preparing for this moment, he had been training to protect his sister, but now, he had to find the one who had kidnapped her. Even if it took him forever.

Rain started to fall from the sky, washing the ashes on the ground. Tears started to fall again from Ryu´s eyes as he remembered his sister´s face.

"I see…"

Ryu said this with his eyes closed and a painful expression on his face, covered in tears.

_**Flashback**_

"What is it?"

"Shine on."

The dragon said this to the young boy with warm eyes.

Ryu gave him a confused look.

_**End of flashback**_

"I won´t fail…"

The rain kept falling, covering the now deserted town.

Once more, Amaterasu´s voice echoed through his mind.

**"_Shine on! Ryu Hoshigawa!"_**

At this moment, the young dragon slayer opened his eyes, full of anger and pain, with a stream of tears flowing from them.

His Blue and Red eyes were glowing with strength.

* * *

**Wow, I never thought the prologue would extend this far. Hope you enjoyed it. Chapter one will definitely see more of the fairy tail guild, as our hero joins them.**

**Remember to leave reviews with your opinions, follow and that stuff. I´ll see you next time!**


	2. Chapter 1: Welcome To Fairy Tail!

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Chapter 1: Welcome To Fairy Tail!**_

* * *

_July 6, X784_

"So…this is Magnolia?"

One year had passed since the accident at Jasmine town, and since then, Ryu had been training hard to become stronger than he was before. In that last year, not only did he train, but he also looked for information about the guild responsible for that tragedy on every place he visited, but he didn't get any useful information.

However, in his research, one man told him that maybe one of the main guilds in Fiore could help him find more information than he could on his own. One of those guilds could be found on the city of Magnolia.

As Ryu entered the famous city, he started to think that, because one year had passed since her disappearance, her sister could be dead by now.

"_I can´t lose hope, even if I now the chances are low, she can still be alive."_

Ryu´s hands formed into fists when he thought about that, but after sometime, he returned to his calmed self.

"_I must learn how to control myself, getting angry each time I think about her won´t help at all."_

Not before long, he realized he had been wondering through the city with no particular direction at all. Even though he did know the name of the guild he was looking for, he didn't know where to exactly find it within Magnolia.

After sometime of exploring the city on his own, Ryu noticed that the sun was staring to lower its position, meaning that the end of the day was getting closer. Because of this, Ryu gave up and stopped a man to ask for directions.

"Excuse me, I´m kind of new here and I´m a little bit lost. Could you tell where to find…ehm…wait…I should have it written down somewhere."

Ryu looked through his pockets and took out a piece of paper.

"Ah! Here it is, it´s called Fairy…Tail?"

"Sure thing. Walk in that direction for around 10 blocks, there you´ll see a big building with three banners on it. Can´t miss it."

After that, Ryu bowed to thank the man and started walking. The man waved him off and continued his path.

Around 10 minutes later, Ryu arrived at the place the man had described. It had –Fairy Tail- written on top of its doors, and the main banner was displaying the guild´s symbol.

"Fairy Tail…Let´s see how this goes."

Ryu stepped up, took a deep breath and opened the big door in front of him. What he expected to see was a big group of people discussing guild matters and that sort of things, what he saw was completely different.

"Whoah!"

Ryu dodged some object that was thrown in his direction. When he turned, he sweat dropped when he realized a chair had been thrown out the door, which he had miraculously managed to dodge.

"_What is going on?"_

Ryu thought this when he saw a complete chaos inside the guild. Everyone seemed to be fighting. Ryu, silently, stuck to the closest wall and moved to see if he could get to the counter, where a little old man and a white-colored hair young woman where standing, possibly the only ones not involved in the fight.

Midway to his destination, Ryu noticed there was a Blonde Girl in the middle of the fight, trying to stop a clash between a pink haired guy and someone that seemed to have his chest exposed. A ray of light connected their eyes.

"So you want to fight, Ice cube?"

"Bring it on flame head!"

Above them, a flying cat seemed to be enjoying the view.

When Ryu got to the counter, unharmed, he got the young woman´s attention and said:

"Hi, I would like to know if I can join the guild."

The young woman smiled at him, and happily said:

"Of course you can! Master Makarov, we have a new member!"

The old man stood on the counter a got his face really close to Ryu´s, making him feel uncomfortable. He examined him completely with his right eye and then said:

"Hmm…Mirajane! Bring it to me."

The young woman called Mirajane left off and, after some seconds, returned with something similar to a stamp. Before she could say anything, Makarov got his arm around Ryu´s shoulders, so hard he could barely breathe, and said:

"EVERYONE! I want you to welcome the newest member of our family!"

"I…can´t…breathe!"

Ryu´s face started to turn blue, and in the meanwhile, everyone one the room stopped fighting and turned to see the new member of Fairy Tail.

Makarov launched both of his arms into the air, allowing Ryu to breathe again, and then he said:

"I present to you, Ryu Hoshigawa!"

Everyone cheered when he said this. As a result, Ryu felt a little embarrassed because he wanted to announce his arrival gradually. He scratched his head and waved as he said:

"H-hi…"

Everyone gathered around Ryu and he got introduced to everyone on the guild. Then, the pink haired man made his way, along with his group, through the crowd to welcome Ryu.

"Yo! My name is Natsu,and this is my partner Happy. Welcome to Fairy Tail!"

"Aye!"

"My name is Lucy, nice to meet you."

"I´m Gray. Welcome."

Ryu smiled to them. He felt part of a family again; similar to what he felt when his sister was with him, one year ago.

"Ryu, why don´t you tell us about you? Let´s have a seat."

Lucy decided to move on with the introductions. Each mage in Fairy Tail had a reason to join; she, and the rest of the group, wanted to know more about the newcomer.

They sat down near the counter, and then, Lucy asked:

"Ryu, how long have you been here in Magnolia?"

"I just got here; it took me quite some time to find this place."

Gray then said:

"If you just got here, do you have a place to stay?"

"Not really, I didn't think it would take me that much time to find this place."

Before anyone could say anything else, Mirajane approached Ryu and said:

"Sorry to interrupt you guys, but Ryu still has to tell me where he wants to receive the guild symbol."

"Oh, I almost forgot about that."

Ryu took his left gauntlet off.

"I would like it here, in my left forearm."

Mirajane applied the symbol on Ryu´s forearm. It was black colored. After that, Mirajane left off back to the counter, and Makarov approached Ryu.

"_His eyes. He must be a really powerful mage."_

"Tell me young one, why did you join us?"

Ryu didn't expect Makarov´s question. Remembering the reason that led him to that place wasn't something he wanted to do. Ryu had his head down after repeating the question in his head.

Mirajane noticed the sudden change in Ryu´s mood and slapped Makarov in the back of his head, saying:

"Master! What did you say to him?"

"Ouch!" Makarov said while scratching his head.

"I-I´m sorry, It´s nothing. It´s something I don't like to remember."

Gray, Natsu, Lucy and Mirajane gave him a curious look. Makarov was still scratching and Happy was busy eating some raw fish.

"I need help, I want to find information about the guild represented by this symbol."

It was there when Ryu took out the piece of cloth he had recovered from the fire one year ago. The symbol was a little worn off, but it could still be seen.

When everyone examined the symbol, only Makarov recognized it.

"I´ve seen it before, though I don't know the name of the guild. It´s rare for them to appear, but when they do, they seem to be involved in all sorts of problems, the council is tired of looking for them."

"Tsk."

Ryu didn't like what he heard. Were they so hard to find that even the council had trouble with them?

"Why do you want to find them?" Natsu asked.

"Have you heard about the Jasmine Town incident?"

Ryu had calmed down a bit, and wanted to know if at least the destruction of his hometown was known in the guild.

"I´ve heard about it. No one survived, or at least that´s what the reports said." Gray said.

Ryu clenched his teeth when he heard this, it was a complete mystery to him what the original reports said, but he didn't like the fact that the council and everyone that had taken part in the investigation had announced that everyone had been killed.

"I survived."

Everyone except Makarov gasped. He was getting an idea about what Ryu wanted to do when he finds them.

"Tell me, young one, are you seeking vengeance?"

Ryu looked directly at Makarov and the said:

"They took my sister away from me. Even though I want them to pay for what they did, what I most want is to get some answers; I want to know what happened to her."

Alice´s image came into his mind, and a sad smile appeared in his lips, but then, the red haired woman appeared taking that image. Ryu clenched his teeth once more.

Lucy wanted to change the subject, as the mood would only become worse if they had continued talking about the incident.

"Ryu, why don't you stay with me tonight? You should sleep outside, you´ll get sick if you do."

Ryu changed his expression instantly, he also wanted to leave the subject behind.

"You sure? I don't want to bother you."

"Don´t worry, I just moved in so we are in a similar position, my house is quite big so there´s no problem with me."

"Thank you Lucy, I promise you won´t even notice I´m there."

Now that they had settled that matter, Natsu thought about finding out how strong his new friend was, seen by the big light bulb on top of his head.

"Ryu, now that you are part of my team…"

"_I was never asked in the first place" _Ryu thought as he gave a nervous smile.

"Why don't we take a request? I want to see how powerful you are!"

The idea wasn't a bad at all, it had been quite some time since Ryu last used his magic.

"Sure, sounds fun."

"Lucy, care to join us?"

"Not now Natsu, I have to prepare the spare room for Ryu, I´ll see you two later."

When Natsu set off for the request board, Gray coughed.

"So, which request are we going to take?"

"I don't remember inviting you Ice Cube."

Gray was annoyed by this, but seeing that Ryu would probably get stuck in the middle of their fight, he left.

"Not that I was ever interested in going with you Flame Head! I can take a request with Ryu at any time."

He left with heavy steps. Natsu turned and picked one of the papers hung at the request board. It requested the guild to fight off a group of bandits stationed near a farm in the city´s outskirts. The reward was 500,000 jewels.

* * *

_A couple of hours later…_

Natsu and Ryu arrived at the farm of the man that had made the request. After learning that the bandits had been blackmailing the farmer to receive part of his funds, the pair of mages set off to the north of the farm, where, as said by the farmer, the bandit camp should be located.

When they arrived, the saw most of them were drinking and eating around a campfire. Natsu decided to surprise them and used his magic to blow one of the nearby tents.

"**Fire Dragon´s Fist!"**

As Natsu said this, a red magic seal appeared in front of him, his arms were engulfed in flames and the tent blew up after being hit by Natsu.

"Knock Knock."

All of the bandits stopped what they were doing and got their swords out.

"Hey! What do you think you are doing? Get them guys!"

"Yeah come! I´m ready to take on all of you!"

Natsu said this, but before he could do anything, Ryu had already started.

"**Eternal Fire Dragon´s Roar!**"

When Ryu said this, he filled his lungs with magic and released a powerful stream of blue flames from his mouth, taking down most of the bandits.

"You are a dragon slayer too? That´s awesome!"

Natsu was amazed, but he wasn't going to stay out of the fight.

"My turn! **Fire Dragon´s Roar!**"

Natsu did the same, but some bandits had been able to drop down on the floor, barely escaping Natsu´s flames.

In a matter of seconds, only 3 of the bandits were still conscious. All of them had distanced from each other, trying to surround the pair of dragon slayers.

Natsu took the one standing closest to him, Ryu did the same.

"**Fire Dragon´s Iron Fist!"**

"**Eternal Fire Dragon´s Flower!"**

Natsu engulfed his fists with his red flames, and punched his objective, sending flying through the skies, he then fell on top of his defeated comrades.

Ryu filled his lungs again, but instead of releasing a single, powerful flame towards his target, he jumped into the air and started firing multiple flames in all directions. After some time, all of those flames came falling towards Ryu´s enemy, causing a big explosion of blue fire.

Ryu turned to see Natsu, but he saw how the remaining bandit was lurking behind him, sword on hand.

Natsu turned to greet Ryu, but what he saw was a scared bandit, frozen with his sword about to fall on him. He moved and saw Ryu behind the bandit, Tsukuyomi on hand, with the point of it on the back of the bandit´s neck.

"Drop it."

Ryu said this with a cold expression on his face. When the bandit dropped his sword, Ryu returned to his calmed self and said:

"You have 3 days to leave and return everything you took back to the farmer downhill. Don´t and you´ll meet me again."

"Y-Yes."

After claiming their reward and returning to the guild, Natsu and Ryu parted ways in front of the guild´s entrance.

When Ryu got to Lucy´s home, she greeted him happily and asked:

"How did it go, Ryu? I hope Natsu didn´t cause you any trouble."

"It went just fine. It was a relatively easy job, didn't take us too much time."

"Good, It´s already getting late, so I´ll show you where your room is so you can rest. If you want you can take a shower first.

"Thank you Lucy."

After taking a shower, Ryu went off to his bed, and slept with a satisfying sensation, knowing his first steps in Fairy Tail had been well taken.

* * *

_July 10, X784_

4 days had passed since Ryu had joined Fairy Tail. Alongside Natsu, Gray and Lucy he had completed a couple of jobs that allowed him to get his own place to live in.

Not much progress had been made regarding his research, but he knew he didn't have to push himself. One year was one year, rushing it now would change nothing.

When Ryu entered the guild he noticed most of the members inside had just discovered he was a dragon slayer. It seems no one from his team had said anything about his magic.

He went to the counter and greeted Mirajane, who was sitting beside Makarov, who greeted the young Ryu with some beer on his hands.

"Ryu! What brings you here? Want to rest from all those requests you took in the last days?"

Mirajane reminded Ryu how hard he had been working to get enough money to cover his expenses for the next few months. Truth is, he had completed 7 jobs in the last 4 days, 5 of them single handedly.

He sat down and asked:

"Master, where is Natsu?"

"Oh yes, he left with Lucy and Happy to complete a request. Something about a book I think."

"I see."

The next couple of hours passed quickly, he didn't do much, he chatted with Mirajane about the guild and he proved he was a "man" to Elfman, by defeating him in arm wrestling.

"You are really strong Ryu, you are a real Man!"

Ryu sweat dropped when he saw a big textbox on top of Elfman´s head with the word-Man- inside of it.

"_I hope I´m not the only one seeing that."_

Moments later, the main door of the guild was opened. Natsu, Gray, Happy and Lucy had returned.

"Hey guys, how did it go?" Ryu asked.

"Don't ask me, I just happened to find them on the way back." Gray said.

"Ryu, it doesn't matter right now, hell is coming home…"

After Natsu said this, both him and Gray stood in horror. Lucy didn't seem to know what those two were feeling afraid of.

"What do you mean, Natsu?"

Ryu wanted to know what mad Natsu afraid, as he didn't imagine something could scare his reckless friend.

"Erza…Erza is coming home!" Gray said this while he shivered along with Natsu.

Lucy seemed to be scared too, but she didn't really know how bad the woman known as Erza could be, that is what scared her.

"Erza? Who´s Erza?" Ryu asked.

"She is a terrible monster!" Natsu answered.

Mirajane, overhearing the conversation, added:

"She is the strongest mage in our guild Ryu, nothing to worry about."

She said this calmly as she handed Ryu a glass of water.

"Are you crazy Mirajane?! She is a LOT to worry about."

Natsu didn't seem to calm down, actually, he seemed to be even more scared than before.

"Don't pay attention to them Ryu, she is the one that usually puts an end to the fights between Natsu and Gray." Mirajane said.

"I see…"

Ryu took a sip of water when he heard how the door was opened again, this time, another guild member, Loke, opened the door, fear covered his face.

"Erza…Erza is here!"

* * *

**Hello everyone! This chapter was supposed to be up earlier, but my laptop seemed to have corrupted the file I had, so I had start all over again (Imagine the anger). Anyways, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I don't know when I´ll have the next chapter done, but it should be up by Monday.**

**Now, I don't know if this is too bad, but I'm having some trouble producing 3000 words per chapter, I'm more used to the 2000 and its surroundings. I wasn't expecting the prologue to be so long, and I didn't think that splitting it in two parts was a good idea. So, if you start noticing the next chapters being shorter, I apologize, I'm still not so creative to deliver the 3000 words or so, I hope you don't mind.**

**This is quite a long ending note, so let's leave it here. Please review with your thoughts or ideas about what you would like to see on the future, as it might help me updating this faster. Fav and follow if you liked it.**

**See ya!**


	3. Chapter 2: Blinded By The Past

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Chapter 2: Blinded By The Past**_

* * *

"Erza…Erza is here!"

Ryu turned to ask Makarov if he should worry, as he saw that the answer would be obvious if he had asked anyone else.

However, he was nowhere to be found.

"Ehm…"

Mirajane noticed the confusion in Ryu´s face.

"Oh, it was just a projection of him, he had to leave though, because the meeting he is attending is about to begin."

"I see…"

The sound of moving armor came from the opened door.

"It´s Erza."

The shadow of someone carrying a big object was entering the guild.

Ryu was waiting anxiously to meet the most powerful mage in Fairy Tail, and so was Lucy. She moved close to Ryu and, very softly, said to him:

"Ryu, why don't we present ourselves to her together? Everyone seems to be scared of her, so I'm a little bit afraid to talk to her on my own."

Before Ryu answered he raised his glass of water to have a drink before meeting another member of his guild.

But, when Erza entered and placed the big object she carried with her, the teeth of some beast she had killed, beside her, Ryu´s body froze.

"I´m back. Is the master here?" Erza said.

"Welcome back. The master is at the regular meeting."

Ryu´s eyes widened when he saw her crimson hair. It was very similar to the one he had seen _that_ night.

"You two, I guess you must be new here. What are your names?"

"M-My name is Lucy!"

Lucy answered very nervously.

Ryu, instead, dropped the glass of water he had. The sound of the breaking glass silenced the room.

"Hey! What do you think you´re doing?" Erza said.

"Ryu, is something wrong?"

Ryu ignored the fact that everyone had been surprised by his reaction. The only thing he could see, was the image of his sister´s captor on Erza. Nothing else mattered.

"You…" Ryu´s voice was barely heard.

"What did you say?" Erza asked.

Everyone on the guild was worried, either because of Ryu had dropped the glass of water, or because it could have angered Erza.

Ryu´s pupils contracted.

"You!"

Ryu said this as he was starting to unsheathe Tsukuyomi, his katana.

"Ryu! What are you doing man? I know you might be a little exited to meet her, but you can't fight Erza!" Natsu said this to Ryu whilst hiding behind Gray´s back.

"What do you think you are doing?"

Erza said this as she used a magic seal to summon her sword, unsure of Ryu´s intentions. Ryu just clenched his teeth as he kept pulling Tsukuyomi out of its scabbard.

"YOU!"

Ryu shouted this and in the blink of an eye, we was standing right in front of Erza, slightly crouched, about to strike with his sword.

Erza moved her sword as quickly as she could, blocking Ryu´s attack just in time. She then jumped back to win some distance.

"What a coward way to challenge me to a duel, but I'll accept. I just hope you are prepared to admit your defeat when you feel you can't keep fighting."

Erza was intelligent, that´s for sure, but this time she had misunderstood what Ryu had been doing. He wasn't asking for a fair duel between guild members, he was blinded by the rage produced by his memories.

Everyone else was just standing back, watching with great amazement. They had never seen someone so fast, even Erza was surprised.

Ryu didn't care at all about what Erza said. He didn't hear her at all, because he didn't differentiate between her and the ghost from the past that had been hunting him since that night.

Ryu, still crouched, suddenly disappeared from everyone´s sight in a blizzard of air. He was very fast, even for a dragon slayer.

He appeared behind Erza, in mid-air, sending another strike towards her.

She turned and used again her sword to block his attack.

Again, she moved some steps away from him. His eyes were glued to hers, clearly following every moment.

Ryu dashed again, this time, he had planned to send the point of his sword directly at her chest.

Erza was able to turn her body in order to dodge his attack, Ryu stopped and turned to face her, sword still on hand.

Once again, he charged at her.

For Erza, and everyone that had fought with swords before, time moved very slowly each time two swords clashed. It is in that time that both sides must think, and fast.

"_He seems to only follow that pattern. Next time, I´ll dodge his attack and finish this with one single strike."_

She was wrong.

When Ryu and Erza clashed their sword again, time slowed down once more.

As sparks were produced by the friction between both swords, Erza saw how Ryu closed his eyes and opened them again. When he opened them, his red and blue eyes were glowing.

Ryu had only one thing in mind, he was now going to finish her, or at least, the figure he saw on her.

When both swords separated, Ryu´s sword started to glow.

"**Requip…**"He said.

Erza eyes widened as she saw this.

"…**Daybreak & Nightfall!**"

The change was completed, with Daybreak on his left hand and Nightfall on his right hand, Ryu started to turn to hit Erza with Nightfall.

"_He can use requip magic as well!"_

Erza did not have time to think, for one more time she used her sword to divert Ryu´s attack, but this time, she was against a couple of daggers, not a single sword.

The strength of the strike forced Erza´s sword out of Ryu´s way, he now had an open path to hit her with Daybreak.

"I´ve never seen someone as good as Erza with weapons. If this keeps up Ryu is going to win!"

Natsu was very excited. Everyone was, but, as Erza, they did not understand Ryu was not there.

A small blizzard was released from where Ryu was standing.

"**First stage: Sunrise.**"

Ryu struck Erza´s armor with the edge of Daybreak, then, a second blizzard was released from him, and there, the speed of his movements increased. His movements were hard to follow, but you could see Erza´s armor was starting to get scratches everywhere, the same as her arms and face.

They were very slim scratches, this was due to the magic in her armor and also because Ryu didn't want to kill her. Not because he knew she was Erza, but because he didn't want to kill his opponent so he could ask her about her sister.

At least, that was he hoped.

"**Second stage: Dawn.**"

Ryu´s body was visible again for everyone else. He was slightly crouched, and there, he kicked Erza´s armor and started launching heavy attacks on Erza, who could barely block some of them, because of the last attack she had suffered.

"He is taking it way too serious don't you think?" Gray said.

"It´s just part of the fight, Gray."

Natsu was just amazed; he had never seen someone do so well against Erza.

"**Third Stage: Dusk**"

Ryu used his speed again to get closer to Erza. This time he didn't use any parts of the blade of any daggers. Instead, he used the grip of each dagger to land powerful blows on her arms and legs, almost paralyzing her for no more than 5 seconds, but that has all the time he needed.

He kicked her upwards, and positioned both of the daggers close to him, pointing onwards.

Natsu´s eyes widened.

When Erza started to fall, Ryu started running towards her landing point.

"**Forth Stage: Sunse-**"

Before Ryu could get anywhere near Erza, Natsu was standing before him, arms opened.

"Ryu, stop!"

Ryu froze. He came back to himself. He realized what he had done. He had attacked a guild member, with the sole intention of causing her harm.

Evryone on the room understood, and were standing there, speechless.

Erza fell on the ground, and after she recovered her movements she struggled to stand up, so she used her sword to aid her.

A single line of blood was exiting her mouth, scratches and bruises everywhere.

Ryu´s eyes widened, but this time, it was because he had permitted the past to blind him.

Everyone wasn't sure how to react, some looked at Ryu seriously, others with amazement.

Ryu had his head down.

"I-I…I´m sorry."

He dropped his daggers and left the guild, running.

"Ryu, stop!"

Gray shouted to him, but with no avail.

Erza just looked at him go.

"_He is very powerful, even though I didn't use any magic, he did the same. His speed is natural. I shouldn't have lost in a fight like this one." _She thought.

Ryu ran and ran alongside the shore of the ocean near the entrance of the guild.

"_What have I done?"_

He ran until he found himself at some sort of park, he wasn't sure about te location, but it was small, only containing one big tree.

He sat down next to it, and waited. He wasn't sure what to wait, but he waited.

* * *

_Hours later..._

A couple of hours passed, the sun was setting down.

Out of nowhere, Natsu´s voice came in.

"Yo!" Natsu said while putting his hand Ryu´s shoulder.

"Natsu…"

"Don't look so depressed, you won after all!"

Ryu turned his gaze away from Natsu.

"You know what I meant to do."

"I know, everyone knows actually."

Ryu just wanted to be alone.

"Then why did you come? Why aren't you fighting me? I tried to kill a member of your guild."

"The way you left told me that you didn't exactly know what you were doing." Natsu had a big smile on his lips.

"Everyone is waiting for you. Well, not everyone, Erza is resting in her home. We know you must have an explanation."

Ryu sighed and stood up, and with Natsu, started to walk back to the guild.

When they arrived, Ryu saw how there was a chair in the middle of the room, and many others were surrounding it.

Everyone looked at him, yet no one said anything.

He sat down in the middle, as he knew he was the one supposed to sit there.

"Everyone, I-I want to apologize for what I did…"

Silence was still on the air.

"I attacked Erza, but I wasn't looking at her. I wasn't here, my memories filled my mind."

Everyone gave him a confused look. Mirajane was serving beer to everyone, but she kept her eyes on Ryu, worried for him. She felt from her conversations with him that he was a nice person.

"One year ago I used to live in Jasmine Town. As some of you may know, I am the only survivor of the incident that transformed that place into a graveyard."

Some gasped in surprise, Natsu and his team only kept their heads down.

"My sister was taken from me on that night. She might be dead, she might be alive, I don't know. I attacked Erza because the one who led the attack had red, long hair and used armor similar to Erza´s."

Ryu wasn't sure what to do then. Everyone understood why he had done what he did.

Suddenly, the guild´s main door was opened. It was Erza.

Ryu had his face down; he didn't think he had the right to look at her eyes.

Erza made her way through the crowd and stood next to Ryu.

With his face still down, Ryu said:

"I´m sorry, I wasn't thinking…"

No answer came from her.

Ryu took his left gauntlet off, showing his left forearm. His guild symbol was there.

"Take it off…Take my guild´s symbol away..."

"Ryu! What are you saying?!" Natsu said.

"I attacked a member of your family, I must take responsibility for what I did"

Erza clenched her teeth, but Ryu didn't see her, because his face was still down.

"Thank you for everything, but I can't stay here, I will only-"

Erza didn't want to hear more about it, she slapped him.

Everyone was surprised. Natsu and Gray, in unison said:

"Erza is mad!"

But then, Erza hugged Ryu very tightly.

"What are you talking about? You are now part of my family, I won´t let you abandon s for something like that. I was able to hear about your past. We´ll find them."

Ryu froze.

"W-Why?"

"As I said, you´re my family now."

Ryu hadn't felt like this in a long time. Manly tears started to flow from his eyes, tears of happiness. He hugged Erza back. She could feel his tears flowing down his face.

"Thank you…Thank you…"

"Ryu, right? Don't worry about it. You will become a big mage in this guild, don't throw that opportunity away."

Natsu shouted cheerfully.

"Alright! Everyone, why don't we throw a party to welcome our two new members?"

Everyone cheered at his proposal.

Even though the party was supposed to be for both Ryu and Lucy, you could say Ryu was the one under the spotlight that night.

* * *

_The next day_

Only a day had passed, and Ryu became very attached to Erza. She did the same, as she had been the one who persuaded him to stay in the guild.

Erza had mentioned last night that she would be needing help from Ryu, Natsu, Gray and Lucy to stop something called Lullaby. It seemed to be some kind of forbidden magic that could drain someone´s energy; it had to be stopped at all costs.

Ryu went to the train station, and there he saw Natsu and Gray fighting, red and blue auras coming from them.

Beside them, Lucy was sitting in a bench, Happy was there too. Erza was nowhere to be found.

Natsu felt Ryu´s dragon scent, so he turned and waved to him.

"Hey, Ryu! Over here!"

Ryu ran up to them, but then, he noticed that Erza was getting close to them. A big amount of luggage behind her.

"Erza!" Ryu waved to her with a big smile. Natsu and Gray immediately stopped fighting and smiled to each other as if they were really close friends.

Erza waved back to Ryu.

"_It´s nice to see he has left what happened yesterday behind." _Erza thought.

"Let´s go, the train is about to leave."

When all of them got into the train, they sat down, and the train started moving.

Ryu was sitting beside Erza. Natsu, Gray and Lucy were sitting in the same chair.

"Hey! Why don't you sit somewhere else? There´s no enough space for of us to fit in!" Lucy shouted to Natsu.

"I don't want to sit far from you guys, so you´ll have to bear with it. *Laughs*"

Both Ryu and Natsu started to feel sick because of the train, but Ryu didn't suffer as much as Natsu.

"Why don't you rest for a bit Ryu? Lay down here."

Erza said this whilst pointing to her lap. Ryu blushed, but he got his head down. He had never felt like that before on any transportation, so he fell asleep quite easily.

Natsu, Gray and Lucy were very surprised, but after a couple of seconds, Natsu felt sick again.

"Natsu? Are you ok?" Happy said.

Weird sounds came from Natsu´s mouth, so everyone laughed.

Ryu just slept, as Erza explained everything whilst caressing Ryu´s head.

* * *

**I felt this was a really weird way to end the chapter, hopefully it wasn't. Don't be surprised to see more moments of Erza treating Ryu nicely, it´s going to be quite frequent. **

**I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I´ll do my best to have the next chapter up by the end of tomorrow, as this week will be full of work, so it will take some time to update after that, not more than a week, though.**

**Remember to review, fav and follow. Be sure to leave your ideas or anything you would like to see along with your thoughts about the story so far. It makes me happy to hear them.**

**See ya!**


	4. Chapter 3: Second Nature

**Don't be shy, leave reviews! =)**

**Before you read, I will say this is the worst chapter you´ll ever read on this story. Don't worry, the next chapter will be the start of the actual plot of this story, so I hope you get through this chapter without going into a rage. I just wasn't very interested in this chapter, but the next ones will be better, I promise.**

* * *

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Chapter 3: Second Nature**_

_July 11, X784_

Ryu woke up when he felt the train had stopped moving. He and the others were now at the train station of Onibas Town.

Ryu felt better now that he had his feet on the ground. He followed Erza, Gray and Lucy, Happy was sitting in the mountain of luggage Erza had brought.

"Where´s Natsu?" Happy asked.

The group turned around to see that they had forgotten about Natsu.

Happy waved off the train

"Maybe we should have checked him before standing up. Maybe his motion sickness kept him from walking or letting us now he needed a hand." Ryu said.

"That idiot…" Gray said this as he face-palmed himself.

Erza ran to what seemed to be some sort of lever. It was close to the tracks of the train and had a sign on top of it.

"Emergency stop? Nice idea." Ryu said.

As soon as Erza pulled the handle, an alarm went off and an announcement was sent through the speakers of the station letting the passengers of the next train that the departure could be delayed due to an emergency.

A man dressed in uniform approached Erza and said:

"You just can´t pull the emergency lever like that!"

"It´s a friend of ours. Please understand." She answered

"That´s just going too far…" The man replied.

After she told the man to get the luggage back, she left with Gray, Happy and Lucy to get a magical device known as a Magic Four-Wheeler. It was some sort of carriage powered by the magic of the driver.

Lucy got inside the carriage along with Happy, Gray got on top and Ryu crouched besides Erza, hanging from the base of the device that connected Erza´s magic and the car, as she had decided to be the driver.

_30 minutes later…_

The wheeler was moving at a high speed. Ryu saw the train starting its gears again in the distance.

"It´s moving again!" He said.

Erza increased the wheeler´s speed, and in a matter of seconds, they were beside the now moving train. Ryu saw how one of the train´s cars was destroyed, the one they were in before, precisely.

"_I hope Natsu is alright." _He thought.

Suddenly, from the side of the train, one of the windows broke, and the first thing the group could see was Natsu, who crashed into Gray. The surprise made Erza stop the car as fast as she could.

When the wheeler stopped everyone got down to check if Natsu and Grey were alright.

Natsu stood up, and Gray said:

"That hurt, you moron!"

"You are the ones that left me behind!" Natsu replied.

Feeling relieved, Erza got close to him and said:

"Let´s forget about that, what matters is that you are here, unharmed."

"Unharmed? I got into a fight with some guy that said he was part of a guild called Eisenwald or something." Natsu said.

"Idiot!" Erza slapped him as she said this.

"Eisen-what?" Ryu asked.

"Oh right, you were sleeping. It´s the guild that attacked us some days ago and also has something called "Lullaby" in their power." Gray explained.

Natsu hadn't heard the conversation because he was too busy dealing this his motion sickness, which was greater than Ryu´s.

"They are the ones we are looking for! I can´t believe you let him go. Anyway, let´s follow that train; see if we can catch him." Erza said.

Natsu stood up again, feeling confused as he had not heard about them before.

"Natsu, can you describe the guy who attacked you?" Ryu asked.

"I can only remember he had a weird flute with him, it looked like a skull with three eyes." He said.

Lucy´s eyes widened.

"Is something wrong, Lucy?" Happy asked.

"I´ve heard about that flute. It contains death magic." She answered.

Everyone got back to the wheeler, but this time, Ryu went inside as well, and Natsu did the same. Ryu would not be able to stand more movement in front of the wheeler.

This time, Erza was exceeding herself, the speed was incredible.

"Erza! Slow down a little bit, you magic will be drained!" Gray said to her.

"I can´t! If that flute gets to Erigor, who knows what he´ll use it for!"

The group arrived at Oshibaba station after learning the army had been mobilizing to capture Eisenwald, after they had hijacked a train. When they arrived, the group saw no one was allowed to enter, as Eisenwald had settled in the station.

After a couple of seconds, Erza talked with some of the station officials, and after knocking out the ones that didn't answer fast enough, the group entered the station.

Natsu was still affected by his motion sickness, so Lucy was the one in charge helping him move. The group arrived at the main stairs of the station, only to see members of the army lying unconscious on the floor.

The group walked up the stairs, and after some time they arrived a big, open area. Inside, a great amount of Eisenwald members waited for them, with their ace, Erigor, in front.

"Natsu, wake up! It´s time to work!"

Lucy said this trying to wake Natsu up, but he wasn't responding.

"Impossible. Trains, the wheeler, Lucy, 3 times on transport have taken him down." Happy said.

"I´m a transport too?!" Lucy replied.

A man dressed in white, with his hair tied at the back, stepped up and said:

"Damn you flies! It´s your fault that Erigor got angry at me."

"Who is that guy?" Ryu said.

Natsu woke up after hearing that voice. He stood up and recognized the man; it had been the one who attacked him at the train when he had been left behind: Kageyama, the shadow mage.

"Erigor, what do you plan to do with Lullaby?" Erza asked.

The mage flew up using wind magic, as he landed on top of some speakers, indicating they would plan to use Lullaby to drain the townsfolk life using the cursed song.

"You…you plan to broadcast it?!" Ryu said.

"I´ll punish everyone outside the station, for living with rights that we were deprived of, and not knowing about it!" Erigor replied.

"That won´t give you your rights back!" Lucy added.

A big smirk was formed on Erigor´s face.

"We don't want our rights back, we want power. It will lead us and allow us to rewrite history, we will rule the future of this land!"

Ryu clenched his teeth. If they succeeded, Oshibaba would transform into another graveyard of souls, just as Ryu´s former hometown.

"You won´t live to see the age of the dark guilds, instead, you´ll see what the afterlife looks like!"

Kageyama said this and proceeded to attack Lucy, but before he could damage her, Natsu stood up and used his flames to dispel his shadow magic attack.

"I knew it was you, I could hear a familiar voice..." Natsu said, completely recovered from the motion sickness.

"Natsu! Good thing you´re back on your feet" Ryu approached Natsu and patted him in the back as he said this; both of them gave a thumbs up to each other.

"This is going to be fun!" Natsu said.

"_You fell into my trap, Fairy Tail."_

Erigor gave another big smile to them as he thought about this. Then, he used his magic to fly again, and said to his companions:

"I´ll leave them to you guys, show them how scary a dark guild can be!"

He was about to escape using his wind magic, but then…

"**Eternal Fire Dragon´s Roar!"**

Blue flames were launched at his direction, he quickly dodged it, but then he noticed that the fire started to expand, until it had covered every possible exit behind Erigor. The only exit Ryu had not closed was the one standing behind him.

"I don't think so, Erigor. A true mage wouldn't run off, and even if you keep trying, these blue flames will chase you." Ryu said.

"I wanted to let my friends here kill you nice and fast so you flies wouldn't suffer, but I guess you want to feel the pain I can give you, I will grant your wish!" Erigor replied.

"Bring it on!" Gray added.

"Your clothes…" Natsu said.

"Why does this happen?" Gray replied.

Eisenwald members were preparing to fight, Team Natsu did the same. Erza got her sword ready, Natsu and Ryu engulfed their arms in flames, Gray was preparing to use his Ice Make magic and Lucy got the Giant Crab Key prepared.

Both sides charged at each other.

"**Fire Dragon´s Iron Fist!**"

Natsu used his arms to take the first 5 members of Eisenwald down without much effort. Kageyama summoned 3 shadow arms and sent them towards Natsu.

"**Ice Make: Lance!**"

They were destroyed by great ice lances. Natsu and Gray had taken down a good amount of Eisenwald´s mages after a couple of movements with the same spells they had initially used.

They were divided into 3 groups.

Lucy and Erza were together against another third of the members, Ryu had another one, plus Erigor. Natsu and Gray were taking care of the remaining one.

"**Open the Gate of the Giant Crab! Cancer!**"

Lucy activated her magic and moved the key through the air, and then the celestial door opened, revealing Cancer, a man with the aspect of a crab with a pair of scissors on each hand.

Erza changed into her Heaven´s Wheel armor. Ryu was able to get a glance on her. Plated armor covered her chest, though her stomach and neck were exposed. The plated armor was also present covering her skirt, and large metal wings made of more blades completed the armor.

"_Now that looks amazing." _Ryu thought.

But he didn't have time to think, he couldn't waste time, as he had the ace of Eisenwald in front of him, apart from the remaining members.

"_Wind Magic and a lot of swords…Won´t take long to take most of them down, the only one I should be careful about is Erigor."_

As he thought about the how his enemies would attack him, Ryu started to prepare his magic seal.

"It´s time to say good bye, little fairy!" One of the Eisenwald members shouted this as he and the others charged at Ryu, swords in hand.

"**Circle Sword! **Dance, My Blades!"

Erza´s voice got Ryu´s attention, as she had ordered her attack not to take down her opponents, but Ryu´s. A barrage of swords sent most of them flying into the walls and all of their swords were destroyed.

Ryu and Erza looked at each other and nodded. She turned to help Lucy and her celestial spirit Cancer with the remaining members.

"Useless…I suppose I will take you down myself." Erigor said this to Ryu and got his giant scythe ready for battle.

Ryu dashed towards Erigor and engulfed his fists in blue flames, but just before hitting him, Erigor covered himself in a wind magic spell, which repelled Ryu and his attack.

"It won't be so easy, little fairy! This is my **Storm Mail**; none of your fire attacks will do me any harm! **Storm Bringer**!" Erigor said.

A small tornado appeared just where Ryu was standing. Natsu and Gray were about to take down Kageyama and his partners, Erza and Lucy had just finished, and went running to Ryu.

"Ryu!" They said in unison.

Inside the tornado, small wind blades seemed to be covering Ryu´s body.

Without thinking about it, Erza used her swords to attack Erigor, but the wind surrounding his body was sending waves of strong wind that kept her away from even getting near him. Lucy would just watch her, as trying to help would just distract Erza.

Natsu and Gray could only give small peaks to see if their friends were still standing. The sight of Erza battling Erigor and the way a tornado was covering Ryu wasn't something pleasing to them.

"Gray, take care of this guy. I must go and help!" Natsu said.

"You don't get it, do you? You will just be a bother to Erza, that´s why Lucy isn't helping her at all." Gray replied, before sending a barrage of ice shards towards Kageyama, who was the last man standing before them.

"Let´s take this guy down then, and fast." Natsu said.

Lucy was standing beside the tornado, when she felt the wind was changing its direction.

Inside, Ryu was receiving small cuts when he opened his mouth.

"_I guess I´ll have to fight wind with more wind…" _Ryu thought.

"You had your chance to surrender Erigor, but you´ve lost it."

Ryu´s voice came from the inside of the tornado, and then, all the wind in the room, including some of the wind attacks that Erigor was using against Erza, was absorbed by Ryu.

Apparently, he was eating the wind.

"But, you use blue fire, not wind." Lucy said in surprise.

Dragon Slayers have the ability to consume the element they control to regain energy and magic power if the source of it is different than the Dragon Slayer. At, least that is what Lucy knew after seeing how Natsu has consumed normal fire to recharge himself. It was a complete surprise that Ryu was consuming Erigor´s wind magic because, as far she knew, Ryu controlled blue fire when using his Dragon Slayer abilities.

When the wind near Ryu had completely disappeared, a blizzard started to form around him, showing that he had recovered from the damage suffered by Erigor´s attack.

"Turns out I am a Sky Dragon Slayer as well. We could say my father is a "special" dragon."

After saying this, Ryu made a sign with his hand to Erza, indicating she had to stop fighting so Ryu could take over from there, focusing on his target completely. Natsu and Gray had defeated Kageyama and the rest of Eisenwald, but they understood that this was Ryu´s fight, even if Natsu was eager to enter the fight.

A light blue colored magic seal appeared in front of Ryu.

"**Sky Dragon´s Flight!**"

Both of Ryu´s legs were covered in wind. He jumped high enough to approach Erigor´s body and launched a kick with his right leg, directed towards Erigor´s face.

The strong wind from the wind armor wasn't completely stopping Ryu, but it was slowing him down. Erigor took his scythe out and tried to slash Ryu.

"Watch out!" Happy screamed.

Thanks to this, Ryu was able to spin in his position to dodge Erigor´s slash, and now that he had lost concentration on increasing his defensive abilities, Ryu had a chance to get through Erigor´s defense to take him down, and stop his plan to use lullaby once and for all.

"**Sky Dragon´s Tail!**"

A long tail made of Ryu´s wind appeared. The momentum he had acquired thanks to his movement moments before proved to be a strong impulse to this attack, which was able to get through Erigor´s defense, sending him flying towards a nearby wall, destroying it in the process.

Ryu fell to the ground and quickly ran to Erigor to take control of the cursed flute.

The Eisenwald members were captured and Lullaby was destroyed, so no one would ever try to use its melody again. The inner section of the station had been badly damaged, but the rest of the station remained mostly intact.

* * *

_The next day…_

Everyone was following the usual routine, as always. Most of the guild members were having the usual chat whilst drinking. Every now and then someone would decide to take a request, but not much was happening.

That day, Ryu was invited to see a fight between Natsu and Erza, as it seems they had arranged that without him hearing about it. When he arrived at the guild, everyone was ready to see who would come out as the victor in the fight, though most of the guild were supporting Erza.

But before the battle could start, a messenger from the mages council appeared to deliver a message.

"Hoshigawa, Ryu. You are under arrest."

Ryu didn't protest, as he knew the destruction caused by them with the Lullaby accident would not go unnoticed by the council.

The fight between Erza and Natsu was concluded, they didn't have the mood to fight. No one on the guild had the mood to do much, Ryu´s arrest was a shock to everyone, but nothing could be done about it.

The next morning started the same way. No one was talking; the guild was just waiting to hear news about Ryu. Well, almost everyone was waiting.

"We must rescue Ryu, he didn't do anything wrong!"

Natsu´s voice cut the silence in the room.

"We can´t do anything. It´s the magic council, if we do anything, it will just get worse for Ryu and for us." Erza replied.

Without paying attention to Erza, Natsu started walking towards the door. But then, just before he could open the door himself, Ryu was opening the door from the outside of the guild.

Everyone got excited and went towards Ryu, because no one expected him to return that day.

Ryu explained that the council had decided to announce publically that he had been found guilty for the damages done to the station where he and the rest of team Natsu fought Eisenwald. It was done to make everyone believe they actually enforce the law, as it had been a relief that Fairy Tail had prevented the use of Lullaby.

Everyone invited Ryu to sit and tell more about what he had done.

* * *

_In an unknown place…_

The image of Ryu talking happily to his friends was shown on a crystal ball in front of a dark figure sitting in what seemed to be a throne, with a big banner behind it. The banner had a skull and a moon drawn on it.

Darkness was filling the room, the only source of light being the image produced by the crystal ball. The dark figure had some strings of red hair covering its cheeks.

The dark figure smiled.

"There you are…"

* * *

**Leave reviews! I would love to hear what you think, even if it´s criticism, though I would be very grateful if it´s constructive criticism.**

**I told you it was going to be terrible. Anyway, this will mark the start of the plot, so you won't receive more of this anime based chapters that much, maybe a couple but most of them will be completely original.**

**I will try to update this story weekly, so can expect new chapter in Friday or Saturday.**

**See ya!**


	5. Chapter 4: Shadows

**I´m really sorry for the late update, but I will let you know that until mid-June it will take me a similar amount of time to upload the next chapters, due to the fact that may and the first days of June will be full of work for me.**

**Oh, the lack of reviews...I want to listen what you think guys!**

* * *

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Chapter 4: Shadows**_

_July 18, X784_

It had been almost one week since the destruction of Lullaby and the capture of the members of Eisenwald. Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Happy had been "punished" for taking an S-Class request without permission after returning from the place known a Galuna Island. When that happened, Ryu just stayed home to take requests on his own so he could afford the rent for his house.

The house he was sleeping in at the moment was quite close to the guild, so Ryu didn't have to worry too much if something happened. The house had two floors, and Ryu was sleeping in the second floor, on a room from which yon could see the guild.

The last nights had been tough, because Ryu had been living the same nightmare over and over again. At first, Ryu could not remember exactly what happened in his nightmare, but that night, it was different.

The guild was falling apart, it had been destroyed. That is what Ryu could remember from the last night, and this wasn't different.

In his nightmare, Ryu walked towards the entrance of Magnolia, with his hood on, possibly returning from a mission. He was always alone, and as soon as he sees Magnolia, he can see that, in the distance, the guild building is being destroyed by a massive shadow.

Ryu always ran towards the guild, but the distance increases the more he runs, until he wakes up.

Ryu opened his eyes and grabbed his head with one of his hands. Cold sweat was running down his back. He stood up and walked towards a window opposite to his bed, the only available on the room.

When he moved the curtains, he could see the top of the guild building.

"_It´s still there…"_

His eyes fell to the ground as he closed the curtains and walked back to his bed.

He prepared himself to sleep once more, and closed his eyes hoping that he would be able to sleep peacefully.

When he woke up, he opened the curtains so the room could bask in the sunlight that came through the window. It was a bright day, with few clouds wandering in the sky. Ryu changed into his usual pants, shirt and robe. After grabbing Tsukuyomi, he went to the guild.

When Ryu got to the guild, everyone greeted him as always. Erza and Gray were talking in the counter. Natsu, Happy and Lucy were nowhere to be found.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Ry-"

Erza turned to greet Ryu, but her words stopped suddenly when she looked at his face. Gray turned and seemed to be surprised too.

"What is it?" Ryu asked.

"Have you been sleeping well lately? You seem quite tired."

Gray said this as he got his face closer to Ryu, examining him.

"I guess…I have been waking up a little bit earlier but I feel fine."

Erza looked at him with a very serious look, obviously not believing his words.

"Anyway, where´s Natsu and Lucy?" Ryu asked, trying to get Erza´s eyes off of him.

"They went fishing with Happy." Erza replied.

"I see…I´ll go and take a request, I haven't been able to do much for the past week."

As he said this, Ryu started walking towards the request board.

"Shouldn't we go with him?" Gray asked to Erza.

"No, unless he wants us to. He hasn't done much for the last week, so he might just be doing this on his own." Erza replied.

Meanwhile, Ryu was scanning through the requests until he found something that seemed to be interesting. The mission requested him to go to Astragalus town, located to the south of magnolia. There, Ryu would have to finish a group of mages that had been attacking the merchants that were bringing supplies to the town.

"Sounds easy enough."

Ryu took the piece of paper and went to Makarov to confirm he was taking the request.

"Astragalus town? You will be out for a while, it seems." Makarov said as he read through the request.

"Why do you say so?" Ryu asked.

"It will take you around 2 days to get to Astragalus town. There is no train station so you will have to go on foot." Makarov replied.

Ryu started to walk out of the guild so he could get the mission completed as soon as he could.

"Good luck, Ryu!" Erza shouted as she saw Ry leaving the guild.

Ryu just waved back as he was focused on the details given on the request. It didn't show much information regarding the mages, so it didn't seem as if they were powerful enough to trouble Ryu.

Back at the guild, Erza and Gray watched as the Dragon Slayer walked further away.

"_Come back soon."_

Both of them had the same though on their minds.

* * *

_Later that day..._

When the night fell, Ryu found himself in the middle of a forest that separated Magnolia from Astragalus Town. Said forest was so dense, that you could rarely see people wandering in it, as most of the travelers preferred to go around it to get to Astragalus.

Ryu had decided to go through the forest in order to reduce the time it would take him to complete the mission. Nothing had troubled his journey, as the forest, even though it was dense and rarely visited, was quite peaceful.

Ryu thought it would be nice to see his friends as soon as possible. Nothing was more fun than spending time with them. He should be back in around 2 or 3 days, depending on the mission.

"_I´ll definitely take a request with all of them once I´m back. I must admit I wanted to go with Erza when she left to bring the rest back from Galuna Island."_

With the images of Team Natsu on his head, Ryu laid his back against a tree and closed his eyes.

Ryu ran and ran… He didn't know why he was running through the darkness of his mind, but he could only feel the need to run. Everything around him started to get clear. He was running through Magnolia, and the town's folk were looking ahead.

As he ran, he lifted his head to see what everyone was looking at.

It was the shadow he always saw on his nightmare, attacking the guild. That´s where Ryu understood he was dreaming.

But this time, it was different. He had never been able to see the shadow up front, so instead of trying to wake up, he kept running.

When he got closer to the guild, he was able to see most of the guild members fighting, but he could not see who they were fighting against. He could not see any member of Team Natsu.

Worried, he ran into the battle field, but just when he entered, he woke up.

When he opened his eyes he saw that morning had arrived. Ryu tried to shake his nightmare out of his head and started walking again, but just when he stood up, the sound of a branch breaking apart got Ryu´s attention.

Ryu turned towards the direction from where the sound came, and took Tsukuyomi out, pointing it in that direction.

"Who is there?!"

The foliage moved as if someone had rushed off. Ryu sheathed his sword, as he could not smell nor feel the presence nearby.

Ryu had slept on top of his robes, so he grabbed them and put them on so he could use the hood to cover his face in case someone else would follow him later.

* * *

_A couple of hours later…_

Ryu was finally at Astragalus Town. It was a medium-sized village surrounded by forests in all directions. At the center of the town, you would find the main church of the village, surrounded by multiple commercial establishments. At the back of the church a small river divided the town.

The town was divided by a small river that crossed the village vertically. The east side of the town was mainly commercial and in it you would find the main market, where Ryu was heading to. The residential side of the town was at the west.

Ryu was supposed to meet his contractor on a restaurant near the main market. When he arrived, there was a big table with multiple men and women, and they were waiting for Ryu.

"I guess you are the mage who will take care of those bandits."

One man stood up and said this to Ryu. He was at the middle of the table, so it would be normal if he was the one who had contracted Ryu.

"You could say so. Tell me what you know." Ryu replied.

"As the request states, when need you to take care of a group of mages that has been attacking every merchant that has tried to reach the town. We can´t let this happen anymore. There are rumors that they have a small building in the forest to the north. Do it and you´ll leave with 200.000 Jewels."

Ryu turned and started to walk out of the restaurant.

"Be careful, it is said that some of them were part of a dark guild that disappeared a couple of months ago, so they might be stronger than you think."

Ryu left without saying a word.

Outside, he felt the same presence that had been stalking him back in the forest, but when he examined his surroundings, he could only see the faces of the townsfolk passing by, none of them were suspicious.

But, on an alleyway about a block away from Ryu, the dark figure was still watching him, observing his movements.

* * *

_One hour later…_

Ryu arrived at the border of an open area in the middle of the northern forest of Astragalus Town. Near the entrance multiple tents could be seen, and mages were walking around, either carrying boxes or talking to each other.

Ryu used some of his Sky Dragon Slayer magic to jump to a tall tree nearby so he could see what e would fight against.

"30…40…50…" Ryu mumbled to himself.

Even though they outnumbered him completely, he didn't see any mage that stood out from the rest of them.

"_If they just lost their guild, they must be disorganized…no one seems particularly powerful…this shouldn't take long…"_

Most of the mages were using different clothing, so it probably meant that not all of them had come from the same guild. Actually, some of them didn't look like mages at all, but you can´t judge a book by its cover.

Ryu jumped off and started walking towards the entrance of the camp. When he got near, a couple of guards didn't hesitate to attack him. Both of them didn't use magic, but instead had their swords out.

Ryu unsheathed Tsukuyomi and attacked both of them. For the next 40 minutes, the sound of Tsukuyomi cutting through his enemy's defenses, alongside Daybreak and Nightfall in some moments, was the only thing Ryu heard.

Only 10 of them had been actual mages from the old dark guild the contractor had mentioned.

Ryu had knocked out almost all of them, only one of them was still conscious enough.

Ryu grabbed the only mage remaining, and said:

"You were part of a dark guild stationed in the town nearby some months ago, weren't you?"

"I-I was!" Responded the mage, afraid of what Ryu would do to him if he was the only one left.

"I suppose that the dark guilds have relationships with other dark guilds, just as normal guilds do…Tell me everything you know about the Nightmare guild!"

Before the man could say anything, Ryu´s dragon reflexes kicked in. Ryu jumped back and pushed the mage he had on his hands away, so both of them could dodge a magic attack directed at them.

Ryu turned to see who had attacked him. To the left of him, he could see the shadow of a hooded man approaching him, only his eyes were visible.

"_This feeling…this guy was the one who had been following me…"_

With those words on his head, Ryu adapted a fighting stance, ready for whatever the hooded man could do. It would be hard, as the fight with the group of bandits just minutes before had left Ryu tired and with some bruises and cuts on his body.

The mage Ryu had captured ran away, begging for his life as he escaped. Suddenly, he fell to the floor and started chocking. Ryu got closer to see what was going on.

A shadow was slowly taking his life.

"_That magic…the same as that Kageyama guy from Eisenwald…This guy seems to have more control over it, though."_ Ryu thought. He moved towards the man to help, but it was too late.

Ryu turned his gaze towards the shadow mage standing in front of him. He had just killed someone without hesitation, Ryu had to be careful.

"Who are you?! Why did you kill him?!"

Ryu asked this as he engulfed his arms with blue fire, ready to fight the mysterious man that had been following him for the whole day.

"Let´s just say that you are not ready…not yet." The man responded.

"What do you mean?"

Instead of giving an answer, the man summoned a magic circle in front of him, creating multiple shadow arms directed at Ryu.

Ryu just used his fists to break the shadow magic, but when he was about to dash towards his opponent, he felt a deep pain on his back. A shadow arm had appeared out of the floor, and struck Ryu´s back with great force.

Ryu got back on his feet and started attacking the mage. He used his shadows to shield himself from Ryu´s attacks, but they were not enough to stop him.

"Take this! **Eternal Fire Dragon´s Fist!**"

Ryu launched himself towards the mage, breaking through his shadows and hitting his face with great strength. The hooded man went flying towards a small tent nearby. When the smoke cleared, the hooded man was not there.

"I must admit you are powerful, young Dragon Slayer."

Ryu turned so he could see where the voice was exactly coming from. The hooded man was standing there, completely still.

"But you are still not ready."

Suddenly, from the floor multiple copies of him started to appear around Ryu. The sun was setting, so the place was full of shadows. Ryu was at disadvantage.

Ryu knew he could be in great trouble, but he kept calm.

"Don't fool with me…"

Ryu clashed both of his fists together and then crushed them into the ground. A blue magic seal appeared around Ryu.

"**Eternal Fire Dragon´s Wing!**"

His arms were engulfed in blue flames completely, and it seemed as the fire was coming from his back. Ryu started to move his arms as he was punching in all directions. With each movement, the fire in his arms extended, covering a great area around him, hitting all of the shadows around Ryu.

The hooded mage jumped back, as he knew that it could cause him great damage. When all of the shadows were destroyed, Ryu started to approach him. The man just started to clap.

"Well, well…This has been fun, but we must leave. You have a nightmare to stop, and I have a Nightmare to return to."

He disappeared in the shadow of the forest. Ryu was tired enough to not follow him. He controlled himself, because meeting a member from Nightmare was something he didn't expect to happen.

"_A nightmare to stop? Does he mean…I must go back…this can't be good."_

Ryu stood up and walked to Astragalus to get his reward so he could go back as soon as possible to Magnolia.

* * *

_One hour later…_

When Ryu arrived, he was greeted by the same man that had contracted him.

"Did you succeed?"

"I did. I´m sorry, but I must leave as soon as possible." Ryu replied.

"I can´t let that happen, you must rest. Just look at you, it´s clear that it wasn't easy. If you travel back to where you came from you will pass out in the middle of the road, and I´m sure you know it´s not safe to sleep out there at night."

Ryu clenched his teeth. He was tired, and the attack he had received from the shadow mage seemed to have drained a good amount of his energy. Ryu was offered a room in a inn near the entrance of the town, so he could leave at first thing in the morning.

In his room, Ryu just hoped that nothing bad would happen before he returned to the guild. Yet he knew that only time would tell if his fears were justified.

Ryu got into bed, and closed his eyes, throwing himself into the darkness, throwing himself into his nightmare.

* * *

**Again, sorry for the late update. Hopefully the next chapter will be up by the end of the week, but who knows…**

**Anyway, thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.**

**If you did, be sure to leave a review, I heard those things are energy sources for an author! =D**


	6. Chapter 5: Reinforcements Arrive!

**I did not expect my daily life to keep me from writing this much. I am terribly sorry for the late update, but rest assured I will update more frequently.**

**Remember to leave reviews!**

* * *

_**Chasing The Sun**_

_**Chapter 5: Reinforcements Arrive!**_

"_Please be there…Please…"_

Ryu ran and ran towards the building he now called a home, his guild. Even though he knew he was dreaming, he did not realize. The same streets, the same faceless people, the same shadow destroying the guild, everything was still the same as the other nights.

Yet he kept running.

As Ryu got closer, he saw everyone fighting smaller shadows near the guild´s back entrance. He could not see any member of team Natsu. But when he arrived at the guild´s entrance, everything went black around him.

Now, he could only hear voices.

"Ryu…"

At first, Ryu could not recognize them, but after some time, he could identify the voices.

"Ryu…"

"Ryu…"

"Where are you?"

"Come back…"

Natsu, Gray, Lucy and Erza. Their voices echoed through the darkness that surrounded Ryu.

"Guys! Where are you?"

Ryu asked without paying any attention to where he was.

"Where are you?"

"Come back…please…"

All of his friends were repeating those words, and couldn´t do anything about it. Ryu turned on the spot, looking for them, trying to know if they were alright…

* * *

_July 19, X784_

Ryu opened his eyes, relieved that it was still a dream. Knowing that everything was just a product of his subconscious gave him peace of mind. Ryu remembered where he was, as he could not recognize the bed he was in.

"_I´m still in Astragalus Town…"_

Last night he had quarreled with a man that claimed to be part of Nightmare, the guild responsible for the destruction of Jasmine Town and his sister´s disappearance. Just before he left, he mentioned something that made Ryu think his friends were in danger.

"_I must leave then…It might be nothing, but I got to make sure everyone is alright."_

Ryu stood up and got dressed before leaving.

As he left the town, he stepped through the nearby foliage next to the road in order to get back to Magnolia as fast a s possible. The forest was a dense as it was before, but now, it felt safer than last time, probably due to the fact that he wasn´t followed this time.

Getting to Magnolia through the forest would take a day in normal conditions, but this time, Ryu was walking faster through the forest, and he wasn't planning on taking a rest even if night fell. It was still early in the morning, and the light would be covering the forest for a long time before the night fell.

Ryu changed his pace and ran from time to time, before walking again. This way, he would get back to Magnolia at noon.

* * *

_Meanwhile…_

"We are retreating!"

Erza´s voice was enough to make every other Fairy Tail mage understand that they were not in a good position.

In the time that Ryu had left, the guild had been attacked by a dark guild known as Phantom Lord and, after seeing how Levy, Jet and Droy were attacked by Phantom Lord, Fairy Tail declared war on them.

At first, the assault on Phantom Lord´s headquarters seemed to be successful, but the appearance of Gajeel Redfox, the Iron Dragon Slayer changed the tides of the battle. Not only that, but the defeat of Makarov marked that Fairy Tail had to retreat in order to avoid more loses.

"But…Erza!"

Natsu wasn't happy about the decision, but nothing could be done about it.

"Natsu, I know what you want to say, but we must leave, now. We can´t win without Master Makarov."

Erza´s words only made Natsu more eager to fight.

"We would win if Ryu was here…" Natsu replied as he and the rest of the mages ran back to Magnolia.

Erza´s face showed how she wanted to keep fighting alongside her comrades, but doing so would only make things worse. She knew Natsu was right. Ryu could definitely turn the balance on their favor.

"_Ryu…Come back…"_

On the way back, Natsu had to separate from the group to save Lucy, as she had been kidnapped by Jose Porla, Phantom Lord´s master, with the aid of Sol and Juvia, members of Element 4, a group of powerful S-Class mages that were part of Phantom Lord.

* * *

_One hour later, back at the forest…_

Ryu felt as if he had been walking for ages. The possibility of his friends and his guild comrades being in danger made the path feel longer and harder. Each step in the woods became faster, and before Ryu noticed, he was running. The silence of the forest was the only thing giving him company.

From time to time, Ryu would climb up a tree to see how far he was from Magnolia. It seemed as if he had entered the forest located at the east of Magnolia, as more animals started to appear.

"_I´m not that far. Natsu has mentioned this forest a couple of times before…" _Ryu thought.

A group of birds was flying in the opposite direction, leaving Magnolia. Ryu was not an expert, but he was certain that it wasn't time for them to migrate, so something was not right. Without taking a second to think about it, Ryu dashed through the forest as fast as he could.

Ryu knew it wouldn't take him long to get there, yet he did not slow down. But before he could advance any further, he felt a powerful, yet familiar presence. But there was something wrong with it.

It was weak.

"_What is he doing around here?"_ Ryu thought.

Ryu turned on the spot trying to find Makarov, as his dragon senses felt he was near Ryu. But as Ryu tried to concentrate to track Makarov, he felt another person standing near him. Ryu got closer to the source of that energy and found himself standing in front of a gigantic tree with a door leading inside.

"What is this door doing here?" Ryu said to himself as he examined the door.

Suddenly, an old woman opened the door as she had noticed someone was standing outside.

When she opened the door, Ryu took a step back. She had pink hair, tied on the back with two large pins. She was wearing a crimson colored cape, and below it, Ryu could see a green blouse and a long skirt. She had red colored eyes, which were staring directly at Ryu, making him feel uneasy.

With a big broom on her hands, she asked:

"Who are you and what are you doing in here?"

"I am…Hey! Is that…?"

Ryu was able to give a little peak at the inside of the tree, and there he saw Makarov lying on a bed, apparently sleeping. His condition clearly wasn't good.

"Master Makarov!"

Ryu wanted to go and check on Makarov, but as gave a step forward, the broom got on his way.

"Master? If you are truly a Fairy Tail mage, show me your guild symbol."

"Why do you want me to do that? Who are you anyway?"

"You little brat!"

The old woman used the broom to hit Ryu on his head.

"Young kids don't know what respect is nowadays! Try to answer properly when I talk to you. My name is Porlyusica."

Ryu had never heard about her, and his facial expression clearly showed that.

"If you really are a Fairy Tail mage, you should know why I´m asking you to show me your symbol."

Ryu did not know what Porlyusica was talking about, but he did not protest. Ryu took his left gauntlet off and rolled up his left sleeve and revealing the forearm. The black-colored Fairy Tail symbol was there, clear to Porlyusica´s eyes.

"I still don't know what you´re talking about. Let me see Master Makarov."

Porlyusica moved aside, leading Ryu inside. As the young Dragon Slayer stepped in with his gauntlet on his left hand, Porlyusica wondered how to explain the current situation to him.

Ryu wanted to happily inform Makarov of his success on his mission, but when he got closer, he could not believe what he saw and felt. Makarov had almost no magic in his body, as if his life was slipping away from his hands.

"It seems you might just be the only Fairy Tail member that doesn´t know what is going on. I guess no one back at Magnolia has tried to contact you." Porlyusica said.

"No…What is going on anyway? Why is Master Makarov in this state?" Ryu replied.

"Fairy Tail is facing a crisis after starting a war with another guild. Phantom Lord to be precise."

Porlyusica´s answer left Ryu speechless. A war…that is what could turn his fears into reality.

"But...What about the council? Wars between guilds are not allowed!"

"Phantom Lord isn't a legal guild, and the council has not interfered so far." Porlyusica replied.

"_That means that someone was able to defeat Master Makarov…but... Master Makarov is one of the wizard saints…"_

Phantom Lord had a mage powerful enough to defeat Makarov. It was something Ryu could not believe.

"I suggest you go back as fast as you can. Your friends are still fighting."

Ryu started to walk towards the door.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" Porlyusica screamed.

Porlyusica got her broom and chased Ryu out. She sighed and went back to Makarov, with a saddened look on her eyes.

On the meanwhile, Ryu started to run through the forest with determination on his eyes.

"_I will definitely avenge Master Makarov…I will avenge Fairy Tail!"_

As he ran through the forest, he felt a strong presence near him, but he ignored it and kept running.

Ryu did not know that he had crossed paths with Mystogan, one of the strongest Fairy Tail mages. As he run, Mystogan just observed.

"_The new guy, huh?" _Mystogan thought.

As the distance between both of them grew larger and larger, Mystogan wondered if Ryu would be strong enough to protect his friends. His eyes were a clear product of his power, but was he ready for it?

That question circled in Mystogan´s head as he walked towards Porlyusica´s house.

* * *

_Meanwhile, back at Magnolia._

Every Fairy Tail mage was doing everything they could to stop Phantom Lord. A giant robot was attacking the guild, and had tried to deliver the final blow to Fairy Tail twice, but had failed.

The magic source for this moving fortress was the Element 4, some of the most powerful mages of Phantom Lord. Each one of them used one of the 4 elements in their magic, but all of them had just been defeated.

Totomaru, the Fire mage, had been defeated by Natsu. Juvia, the Water mage was defeated by Gray. Sol, the earth mage, had fell at the hands of Elfman, and just recently, Aria, the Air mage, had been defeated by Erza on the inside of the giant robot.

Natsu and Happy had found Erza just after she defeated Aria, but she was in no conditions to keep fighting.

As he was holding her in his arms, she slowly opened her eyes and said:

"Natsu…"

Erza´s voice was weak.

"Erza!"

"Release…your power…"

Natsu´s eyes widened as she said this.

"You have…an incredible power sleeping inside of you…release it…"

Natsu and Happy were speechless.

"Protect Lucy…Protect the Guild…Go, Natsu!"

Natsu clenched his teeth as he stood up. After lying Erza´s body against a pillar, he started to release an amazing amount of power. Erza closed her eyes once more, knowing Natsu would be able to protect the guild.

Some moments later, Gray, Mirajane and Elfman got there, and woke Erza up.

"Erza!" Gray shouted, surprised she was there.

"Guys…" She replied.

"What are you doing in here? You shouldn't be able to stand up with those wounds!" Mirajane said.

Mirajane and Elfman then turned to see Aria knocked out on the floor.

"Erza…did you defeat Aria in that state?" Elfman asked.

With a small smile on the her lips, Erza nodded and said:

"I didn't want you to see me like this…"

Suddenly, a strong feeling of evil filled the room.

"Well, well…I must admit you have surprised me, Fairy Tail."

All of them turned to see where the voice was coming from.

It was Jose, Phantom Lord´s guild Master. He was covered by a deathly aura, as he started walking towards the Fairy Tail mages with an evil smile, clapping at them.

"I wasn't expecting to have so much fun by fighting you…you would have imagined you would be able to stop my magic giant?"

"Master Jose!" Erza said.

"Is this guy…"

"…Phantom Lord´s guild Master?" Gray finished Elfman´s phrase.

"What an incredible amount of evil power…" Mirajane was completely surprised.

"Well…It´s time to thank all of you for this…"

Jose was preparing his Darkness magic.

"Elfman!" Gray shouted as he prepared himself to fight against Jose.

Elfman moved beside Gray, and after changing his arm to the beast one, he jumped towards Jose, as Gray had done the same after preparing his Ice-Make magic.

"Wait!"

Erza shouted this, trying to prevent her friends. But it was too late.

"Useless!" Jose said this as he used both of his hand to create multiple shadows that went straight at both Gray and Elfman.

As they fell powerless on the ground, Jose joined his hands and created a wave that created an explosion, which sent Mirajane, along with Gray and Elfman, flying to the other side of the room.

Erza stood up, and using her Re-equip magic, she changed into her Black Wing armor. She charged with her sword on hand, but Jose reacted quickly. He attacked Erza with his Darkness magic, but none of his attacks were able to hit her.

Erza jumped through the smoke created by Jose´s attacks, and used all of her strength to attack him. But he was able to dodge her blade, and after grabbing her arm, Jose threw Erza away.

She was able to spin in mid-air to re-position herself so she could avoid any potential damage from the fall.

"You…I´m pretty sure you received a shot from the Jupiter cannon. It´s hard to believe you are standing before me."

The Jupiter cannon, the most destructive weapon in Phantom Lord´s arsenal, had been used to attack the Fairy Tail guild building. Had Erza not shielded the guild, the war could probably be over by that moment.

"I will even throw this body away if I have to do so in order to protect my family!"

Erza replied with a deep sense of determination on her eyes, but she knew her body, her muscles and her strength would not last long enough.

"Beautiful, powerful and brave… I will enjoy destroying, young lady!"

Jose´s eyes showed the evil inside of him. By joining his palms together, a dark, purple-colored magic sphere in front of him, ready to attack Erza.

On the other side of the room, Erza tried to stand up by using her sword as support, but to no avail. Her body was way too tired to keep fighting, but her will to fight would have to move her onwards.

"DIE!"

Jose´s magic sphere was launched directly at Erza. She tried almost desperately to stand up, but she couldn't. Erza took her sword with both hands.

"_I will fight until the end…for my family…"_

The image of the usual chaos on the guild came into her head. Everyone chatting, drinking or taking requests.

"_...for my friends!"_

Team Natsu came into her head. Natsu, Ryu, Lucy, Gray and Happy. They were all smiling at her.

Erza positioned her sword to shield her from the blast, but she knew it wouldn't do much.

A huge explosion filled the room with smoke.

"One less to worry about…*laughs*…one step towards Makarov´s despair…"

But…As Jose started to walk away…

"I´d say one more to worry about."

A young, male voice froze Jose. He turned and saw, as the smoke started to fade, what seemed to be a dark-blue robe.

Jose directed another attack in that direction.

"**Eternal Fire Dragon´s Fist!"**

Blue flames repelled Jose´s attack, along with the smoke.

"Ryu!"

Erza was tearfully happy to see reinforcements had arrived. She was happier to see that it was Ryu.

Ryu´s red and blue eyes were already glowing, as he acknowledged Jose´s power. His facial expression showed how ready and determined he was to fight for his guild.

"Erza, take the others and get out of here." Ryu said, without losing sight of Jose.

"I can´t do that! He´s one of the ten wizard saints, you can´t fight him on your own!"

Erza replied as she managed to stand up.

"Look who´s talking. You shouldn't have come here, and you shouldn't have tried to fight him on your own as well."

"I´m an S-class mage, Ryu!"

"That is not enough…Leave, please."

Erza knew she wouldn't be able to change Ryu´s mind.

"I won't leave, but I won't get in your way. I´ll stay out of your battle."

"I guess it´s ok, but if anything happens, leave."

Jose started to clap as eyes became black.

"So you want to be a hero?...I´m sorry, little brat, but I won't let you or that girl leave this place alive."

Ryu took a fighting stance. His right arm got engulfed in blue flames, and his left arm was covered in a small whirlwind. Ryu would fight with all his strength, even if he knew that the odds were not on his side.

"You´ll have to kill me if you want to hurt Erza or anyone else!"

* * *

**Once again, I´m really sorry for the late update.**

**But don't worry, I will update more frequently.**

**Remember to leave reviews; I would like to know if there is still someone interested in this story.**

**See ya!**


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